THE KLEROTERION

ATHENS' JURY LOTTERY · ANCIENT GREECE

In democratic Athens, citizens eligible for jury service could be chosen by lot rather than by campaigning. Place your bronze juror tokens into the stone machine. Then draw a black or white ball to decide the fate of each row!

1 · Juror Tokens

Click a token to place it in the next empty slot.

0 of 20 tokens placed

2 · The Stone Machine

3 · The Lottery

Place the tokens to begin.

White ball: row selected for jury service.

Black ball: row skipped.

Our classroom simulation uses four rows and five columns. The original Athenian system could be larger and more complex.

Selected: 0 · Skipped: 0

Discussion: Who gets to decide?

In Athens, the lottery helped distribute civic duties among eligible citizens. But citizenship excluded women, enslaved people, and resident foreigners. Ask your class: Does random selection make a system fair if many people cannot enter?

Then and now: In the United States, citizens vote for representatives. The November 3, 2026, midterms offer a chance to compare election by vote with selection by lot.

Educational simulation, not a precise reconstruction. Historically, juror allotment involved citizen identification tokens (pinakia), columns associated with groups, and a sequence of black and white balls; procedures varied by context.